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Jan 25, 2015

Reconstruction Zone: Loving Hearts Required

Passage: Nehemiah 5

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Rebuilding the City

Keywords: unity, misuse, abuse, taking advantage, internal conflicts, harmony

Summary:

In the midst of rebuilding a city, genuine love, unity and harmony are challenges that must be addressed by the people of God. In chapter 5 of Nehemiah we encounter the importance of dealing with internal tensions and problems if we are to succeed at building and rebuilding any ministry.

Detail:

Reconstruction Zone: Loving Hearts Required

Nehemiah 5

January 25, 2015

 

ILL:  Several years ago, one of our neighbors decided to fulfill one of their life dreams—to build a swimming pool in their back yard.  They had some strapping teenaged boys who loved to swim and have their friends over for parties.  This pool was definitely going to be a great asset to their burgeoning social life. 

            So one day in June, out came the excavator and dump trucks.  They dug a nice sized hole in the back yard big enough for the pool.  It looked great. 

            But during the night, something unexpected happened.  When they got up the next morning, that 10-foot deep pool hole looked like a pond.  During the night, it had completely filled with water. 

So for the next few weeks, not only was there a constant flow of water down the side of our street as they tried to pump out the water; there was a constant flow of engineers, city water department and pool people.  Problem was, though they were able to drain the hole with a few hours of pumping, there was a steady seepage of ground water right back in.  The pool of their dreams became “the pool from hell” that summer. 

For the next three months, crews from the pool company were out there trying to figure out how to pour a pool in the middle of this pond.  If memory serves me right, it was mid-to late September before that pool actually became functional.  Then, just when you thought it was safe to go into the pool….[bear in pool photo]!  No, not really.

The real tragedy of that story was not how much extra time and money that pool took.  The tragedy was that shortly thereafter, that couple’s marriage melted down and dissolved.  Undoubtedly there was more to the marriage issues than simply a backyard pool.  But the cracks and flooding of their new pool was probably just a visual metaphor for the cracks and flooding taking place in their marriage. 

Whether it’s a kitchen remodel, a backyard pool or an entire house renovation, construction (and reconstruction) can take its toll on human relationships.  It’s not so much that new problems arise as it is that existing problems become magnified.  Before you know it, what you dreamed would be a heavenly experience becomes “the pool from hell.” 

 

Today we are in the O.T. book of Nehemiah, chapter 5.  It’s not a chapter about the external challenges of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  It’s about the internal challenges of relationships between God’s people.  Last week we looked at some of the tools the enemies of our souls use to chip away at our resolve to rebuild lives and cities.  Anger, threats, intimidation, fatigue, discouragement, negativity and fear are some of those destructive weapons used against us as God’s servants to get us off target and off mission in life. 

So besides the external pressures and attacks by people and spiritual forces that don’t want to see people’s lives rescued and transformed by God, there are always internal issues among God’s people that can threaten a good work. 

Let’s hear the Word of God from Nehemiah 5 (ESV).

1)Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2) For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.”3) There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4) And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5) Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

So here were the issues causing strife among these hard-working, self-sacrificing people of God dedicated to rebuilding their city. 

Vs. 1 tells us that there was a “great outcry” going on among God’s people.  In the midst of a “great work” (4:19) for a “great God” (1:5).  Surprisingly, it wasn’t the Samaritans like Sanballat or the Ammonites or the Arabs who were the problem. It was Jew exploiting Jew.  It was God’s people taking advantage of God’s people.  And apparently even the wives (who apparently kept quiet in public normally) had gone public with their protests. 

There were basically two classes of Jews straining against each other—debtors and asset managers.  Verses 2-5 give us three types of debtors that found themselves struggling under the economic realities of the time. 

First, there were people who owned no land.  In an agrarian economy, that meant you had to develop your own business.  The original division of the land (see Joshua) was to be done so that everyone had some land to farm that could then be passed down to one’s heirs.  For whatever reasons, certain families had lost or sold their land and were now at the mercies of a generally depressed economy in Jerusalem.  If they didn’t develop their own businesses, they were completely at the mercy of others generosity.  So here was a whole group of people who were basically hungry because they had no source of income.  They were the unemployed, totally dependent on the generosity and kindness of other Jews. 

APP:  I don’t know what the percentage of those people was in Jerusalem at that time.  But I can tell you that in America today, that group of unemployed who can’t find jobs or have stopped looking is over 90 million people.  In a nation of nearly 320 million people, that’s more than 25% of adults who aren’t working.  I’ve never seen it this bad for this long in my lifetime. 

Well, there was a second group of debtors in Jerusalem that was composed of landowners who had mortgaged their property in order to buy food (vs. 3).  Apparently the combination of a local famine plus possible inflation had been enough to wipe out any savings.  And since their land wasn’t producing enough for them to survive, they had to mortgage their land just to buy food. 

APP:  We’re so used to mortgages in the U.S. that we don’t bat an eye hearing that people had to mortgage homes and land to pay for food.  But reality was not so kind in those days.  Mortgaging your property was just one step away from enslaving your children (vs. 5).  If you couldn’t pay, the lender took your children next.  And getting out of the crazy cycle of mortgage was easier said than done.  The good news was that IF you lived long enough and IF the mortgage holder obeyed God’s command, you or your offspring would at least get the land back, debt-free in no more than 50 years (the Year of Jubilee)!  The bad news was 50 years could be your lifespan.

The third group in this debtor’s class were in vs. 4-- And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.” 

The deal in those days was…well…pretty much what the deal is today on taxes. J  Except it was actually worse.  Whereas in America we have a graduated income tax so that almost half (49%) pay no Federal Income Tax, under The Persian system that Israel was paying taxes to at the time, everybody paid.  That was the price you paid to a.) live in Israel and, b.) not be killed, carted off to Assyria or thrown in prison. And those tax monies didn’t flow back into the Israeli infrastructure.  One man (the king) got richer while everyone (the citizens) got poorer. 

So the combination of a local famine, a compulsory tax and an apparently bad economy had produced a situation in which parents had to decide whether they would mortgage their property and children…or starve as a family.  Starvation or servitude; that was the choice.

APP:  Very few of us in this room have ever had to make a choice like that.  Most of our culture’s indebtedness comes because we want to buy another smart phone or car or year at college, not because we can’t find food.   But most of us have probably known some sense of vulnerability that comes with being in debt.  Whether you are forced to face the dangers of living on the street or have to turn the heat off at home in order to pay the rent and buy groceries, nobody likes to be vulnerable. When we are vulnerable is when some people will take advantage of us. 

Debt will do that to us.  Like it or not, the borrower is servant to the lender (Prov. 22:7).  As long as you have a job or other source of income, debt doesn’t look too threatening.  But as soon as you lose your job or ability to work enough to pay down the debt, debt becomes a cruel task master. 

But, according to God’s heart and plan, that should not be the way it is with God’s people.  If we are living both spiritually and financially as God has told us to, His plan is that debt not be our master.  His plan is to bless us to the level of our stewardship.  His plan is that work will provide us what we need for food, clothing and shelter with enough left over to share with those who are in need (Eph. 4:28). 

Which brings us to the “other class” of Jews in Jerusalem, the wealthy ones, the asset managers.  These folks had enough capital to loan money to their neighbors and family members who were starving.  Nowhere did God prohibit loaning money to another Jew.  But they were not to act like the money managers of other nations, charging interest.  For the people of God, their money and their land belonged to the Lord. It had been given to them by God.  Their ability to work had been given to them by God.  And even in the matter of taking property as a means of assuring repayment or making a brother a servant so he didn’t starve, they were to treat one another with love. 

Listen to the Law in Deut. 24:10-15. 

10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge. 11 You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. 13 When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.15 You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

            So making or taking a loan or even committing yourself to servitude was not against God’s law.  But there were definite limits to it.  Leviticus 25 specified that every 50 years, the “Year of Jubilee”, all debts were to be forgiven, all property returned to its original owner and all servants set free.  There was an automatic “reset-restart” every 50 years.  And if the famine happened to hit in year 48 or 49, you were not to withhold loaning money that would insure another’s survival just because there might not be enough time for the debtor to work off his debt. 

            But here was Jew exploiting Jew in order to make themselves richer.  What was meant to be a wonderful social contract and experience had turned into a cutthroat financial straightjacket.  Where those with money could have learned to trust God through generosity and those without could have developed deep gratitude towards their generous and kind neighbors, neighbors began hating neighbors.  The whole social fiber began to putrefy.  Greed and resentment was taking charge, some of the very sins the prophets had denounced before the Babylonian Captivity they were trying to recover from (Is. 56:9-12; Jer. 22:13-19; Amos 5:11-12). 

APP:  I doubt whether we as a church are in great danger of selling each other into servitude or mortgaging off property to each other.  But while the particular issues may be different today in the church, there always exists a danger between God’s people that someone is doing something that is taking advantage of another or causing damage to someone else. 

Actually living out love is a whole lot harder than talking about it.  Actually helping someone grow into spiritual or emotional or relational or economic health takes time.  It takes patience.  It takes a willingness to learn and accept direction and even correction. But when we do, that’s when love become real.  When we decide to stick with someone through their “famine” time, through their poverty experience, whatever it be, that is when we really become the people of God rather than just calling ourselves His people. 

Part of that important process involves responding lovingly to the “enemies within.”  Vs. 6 tells us that Nehemiah had a pretty emotional gut reaction to the problem when he heard about it.  So he did something very wise before saying a word…but he didn’t hesitate to demand change either.

6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 

            It’s appropriate to get angry sometimes.  In this case, it would have been wrong for Nehemiah not to get angry.  God’s own people were violating His own laws that governed relationships between people. In this situation, there were at least two clear laws of God some of God’s people were violating.  They were these:

1.)    God’s people were not to charge interest on loans to each other.  They were to loan food or money interest free. 

2.)    They were not to enslave each other over debts. If someone sold themselves to you in order to pay off debts, they were to be treated as an employee, not a slave. 

Look at the Scriptures on this.  In Exodus 22:25, God says, “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.”Deuteronomy 23:19-20 is even more specific:  “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20) You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest….”  Then here is the WHY:  “…that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.”

            Even in financial matters, in business dealings, God’s people are to look and act very differently from the surrounding culture.  Sure, charging interest looks like a great way to make money.  We do it all the time in our culture.  But God wanted His people to treat each other differently.  It wasn’t so they would look weird or stupid to others. It was so that God could “bless” them in everything they undertook in life. 

Funny how our financial dealings can affect every part of our lives.  And trusting God with our money will feel very counter-intuitive to what we’ve been trained to do in our culture of greed.  It wasn’t just about helping a fellow Hebrew (though that would have been sufficient good to do).  It was really about giving room through their generosity for God to bless them in every area of life. 

APP:  while I don’t think we are under this law in the church age today, I do think that our handling of money should set us apart from our culture.  Our money should be used to bless others, not just make more money.  And our expectation for growing wealth should never come from taking advantage of people experiencing hardship.  It should come from God who has everything and is able to bless us in ways totally distinct from the people we are helping.

Nehemiah was also right to get angry about how children were being sold as slaves to pay off debts.  Leviticus 25:39-42 taught the Hebrews, “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.”

APP:  There probably isn’t a lot of danger that we’re going to buy and sell each other into slavery in the church now days.  But there always exists the danger that we will not treat each other with the love of Christ.  There is always the danger that we will develop calloused hearts towards those among us in need.  There is always a danger that we will hold the “debt” of an offense or a character flaw or a past sin over someone’s head, expecting them to “pay up” with some form of currency we think adequate for the offense. 

            Among God’s family, the fact is that we will always have “the poor among us” whether that is people poor in people-skills, poor in spiritual maturity, poor economically or poor in some area of character.  That is the reality of people, even God’s people—we are all at different stages, struggling to get out of our own personal “poverty”, and in great need of the patient love of Christ that God wants His people to live out with each other. 

APP:  so who do you need to stop demanding your form of “interest” from?  Who do you need to stop treating like they are somehow subservient to you because of their own personal poverty?  We’re God’s family.  We are to love each other despite our personal poverties.  And when we don’t, even if no one else gets angry about that, God does.  He’s shown us more grace and mercy than we can imagine. And He calls us to pass some of it along in our relationships with each other too. 

So now we come to verse 7.  Even when anger is appropriate, it is also wise to handle that anger in a godly way.  Nehemiah was a wise man. Here’s what vs. 7 says.  “I took counsel with myself….”  Literally it means, “I gave myself advice”.  Nehemiah got his head together before he put his mouth in gear.  He used his emotion to build holy boldness in relating to these powerful people of Jerusalem.  This is what the rest of that verse says:  “…and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials.”  Notice that this was a very specific rebuke.  It applied only to those who were the offending party.  Here’s what it sounded like.

“I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.”

The way the narrative flows, it appears that this may have been Nehemiah’s personal message to the offenders.  Whether in writing or verbally, he went first to the individuals responsible for the problem.  This is the way God wants wrongs righted among his people.  It is the clear pattern Jesus sets down in Matthew 18:15-20.  “You got a problem with a brother/sister?  GO directly to them!  Do not pass GO!  Do not collect $200!”

APP:  Friends, Our Savior who gave His life for us is deeply concerned with how we handle differences in His family.  He knows how destructive they can be.  He’s been watching his church mess this up for 2,000.  We must love Him enough and respect each other enough to do what he says to do. Don’t hand the Enemy of our souls a dagger with which to divide you from another brother or sister.  Snatch that dagger from him and plunge it into the heart of the offense by working hard to restore harmony in the family of God.

Apparently Nehemiah needed to take this issue another level.  It needed to go public because so many people in Jerusalem were being affected by it.  And that should be the measure of any rebuke in the family of God—it should only go as public as the offense.   Nehemiah 5:7 continues:

“And I held a great assembly against them 8) and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!”

Nehemiah is essentially telling them that they have done to each other what the pagan world of the Assyrians had done to them.  This was a page right out of the pagan play book.  For 90 years God’s people had been the slaves of the Assyrians.  And now they are enslaving each other. 

APP:  Why is it that the abused so easily becomes an abuser?  Why is modeling, even bad modeling, so powerful?  Simply knowing the truth doesn’t make us people who choose the truth.  God calls His children to a wildly different standard from the world we live in.  He calls us at every level, in every relationship, in almost every conceivable way to walk SO differently…so like He does…that outsiders can never point a finger at us and accuse us of living just like they do. 

The story continues (vs. 8):  “They were silent and could not find a word to say. 9) So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?” 

The greatest damage to the witness of God’s people comes simply by our failure to walk as God has called us to.  When we live just as our pagan culture lives, we can expect that the enemies of God will use it against us.  “See, you guys are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.  You demand that we live in ways not even you live up to.  What a joke!” 

Well, at least these asset advisors knew when to zip the lip.  They had been called out and were apparently convicted in spirit.  So they wisely chose silence and let God’s man tell them what needed to be done. 

APP: Not many of us handle rebukes very well.  Most of us get all defensive.  We rationalize our failures and counter attack our accusers.  In my thirty years of leading in God’s church in one capacity or another, I’ve rarely seen people who were confronted about their public sin go quiet and let God convict them.  There is something about our modern American Christianity that does not lead us to humility when we are confronted with our need for change. 

Nehemiah goes on:  10) Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” 

The challenge was specific:  1.) stop charging interest.  2.) Return whatever you’ve charged already in interest.  And 3.) give them their means of livelihood back—their fields and vineyards and orchards—so they can have a way to pay back their debts. 

Part of good problem solving between people is being specific about what needs to change and what from the past needs to be dealt with.  Many of our past sins we cannot go back and take corrective action to remedy. 

  • If we gossiped, someone’s reputation has already suffered.  The best we can do is stop the gossip, confess our wrong and ask forgiveness from the one we damaged. 
  • If we took advantage of someone emotionally or sexually or in business, we can’t go back and undo that damage.  All we can do there is acknowledge our wrong and ask for forgiveness.

But wherever restitution is possible, it should be attempted.  If we stole something, we can at least pay for it.  If we cheated someone out of money, we can pay it back.  If we destroyed or damaged someone’s property, we can make payments to help make up for what we did.  And we should!  God knows there is something very healing and healthy about actually righting any wrongs we have been involved in. 

            This is precisely what the offending asset managers did. 

12) Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” What refreshing words from the mouths of imperfect saints!  How many a church dust-up would be solved with those simple, humble words?  How many broken relationships would be restored?  How many great works of God would be kept on track with that kind of humility? 

Lastly, Nehemiah calls his people to recognize that being right with each other is something God takes very seriously.  Loving each other well leads to the blessings of God.  But saying we will do that and then failing to do that is something that invites the discipline of God.  Here’s how serious Nehemiah knew it was in his day.  (Vs. 12)

“And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. 13) I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.”   

Nowhere in this entire chapter does it talk about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  Internal issues of God’s people, matters of the heart, had brought a temporary halt to progress on the wall.  It does no good to have great plans for city reconstruction if there are offenses and abuses and misuses of people going on in the people of God.  Rebuilding the wall didn’t create these problems; it just magnified them. 

            APP:  The great project we are in right now to rebuild our city, to set up a ministry center in the heart of our city that can be used to bring our city closer to the heart of God—it is all for naught IF we are not becoming a people who will love…really LOVE…each other in our day-to-day dealings.  The challenges and trials of the months to come as we go through this process will only reveal what is already in our hearts.  If that is Christ, hallelujah!  We’re in for a wonderful experience.  But if it is selfishness or greed or control or bitterness or a host of other things that can destroy our relationships with each other, then we will never effectively rebuild this city for Christ. 

            APP:  Let’s take some of these simple but transformational lessons with us into this journey together.  Here they are in summary:

1.)     Always be open to a timely rebuke by a Spirit-led brother or sister.

2.)    When you are wrong, take action to correct the problem.

3.)    Make vows to protect people and the future.

4.)    Value relational strength more than material or personal gain. 

CLOSE: 

  • Only Jesus Christ can make us that kind of a person.  Do you know Him as your Savior and Lord?  Have you made peace with God through Jesus Christ so that you can live in peace with others through life in the Holy Spirit?
  • Have you received a rebuke lately that you need to heed?
  • Is God asking you to take some action to right a past wrong?
  • Is God asking you to publically state that to someone in the presence of God so that it takes on the necessary weight and importance in your life?
  • Will you commit yourselves to working hard for the relational strength of this body even as we work hard to reconcile our community to Christ? 

_______________________________________-

Further Study Questions:

Nehemiah 5 is all about resolving problems between God’s people even as we try to rebuild other’s lives.

1.)    How do you see economic disparity between people in the church challenging our unity?  How can it potentially create greater unity?

2.)    This chapter deals a lot with debt that many were becoming enslaved to just to survive.  What do the following passages have to say about debt and the people of God?  How should the Jerusalemites have handled their poverty problems differently?  What are the principles of dealing with people in poverty from these passages that could guide the church in ministering to the poor in the church?  In the culture?  See Deut. 23:19-20; 24:10-13; Ex. 22:25-27; Lev. 25:35-46; Jer. 22:13-19; Amos 2:6-7; 5:11-12. 

3.)    Nehemiah delivers a pretty strong, public rebuke and call to change in Neh. 5:6-13.  How would you have reacted if you had been the offending party then?  The indebted and enslaved party then?  TODAY:  How should spiritual leaders exercise rebukes publically today when it comes to righting wrongs among God’s people?  How do you think such rebukes would be received by most church people?  By you?  What changes might need to take place in how we view and experience church in order for this to work?  

4.)    The command in Hebrews 13:7, “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” frightens many Christians. What limits apply to both leaders and people that can help us obey this passage?  When is it right to leave a church? When is it wrong?  What should we do and not do if we lose trust or confidence in church leaders?  Is it ever God’s will for us to separate ourselves from church for a long period of time? 

5.)    In Nehemiah 5:14-19 we see Nehemiah’s role modeling in leadership.  What was it?  Why is this so important for a leader?  What leaders do you know or have known who you respect because of what they model, not just what they say?  In what areas of life are you seeking to model good leadership to others? How do you feel that is going? 

6.)    Paul had a similar challenge with the Corinthians.  Read 2 Cor. 11:21, 23-30 and 12:16-21 in The Message translation.  (You can go to www.biblegateway.com to find any passage in multiple translations.)  Also read I Cor. 13.  Take time to ask God to speak to you about any relationships in your life that are experiencing tension and problems.  How might God be calling you to change the way you relate to them?  Journal about that or share what you think God is asking you to do with your small group. 

7.)    What can you do to guard and build the unity of Mosaic while we seek to rebuild our city?